NeverEndingSearch — @joycevalenza by Joyce Valenza

Andy Plemmons - Athens, Ga, School Library Media Specialist, EdS, MED, and BSED from the University of GeorgiaI am the school library media specialist at David C. Barrow Elementary in Athens, GA and a Google Certified Teacher. My library program is grounded in transliteracy, participatory culture, and students as creators of content shared with the global community.Our Little Ones Will Have A Song For Every Story With Cantata LearningA few weeks ago I got a special package in the mail. I opened it to find two picture books. It was from my friends at Cantata Learning, a new publishing company from Mankato, Minnesota creating books for children 3-8 years old.Two Very Good Book Search Engines for TeachersMay 11, 2015 In today’s post we are sharing with you two good platforms where you can search for and find online free and premium books. As for Free Book Search tool listed below , this is a specific search engine designed to help you find free ebooks, audiobooks, and Kindle books. This tool is also integrated with Google Drive allowing you to conduct your book search right in your Drive.

Banned Websites Awareness DayTo raise awareness of the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational websites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school libraries, AASL has designated one day during Banned Books Week as Banned Websites Awareness Day. On Wednesday, September 30, AASL asks school librarians and other educators to promote an awareness of how overly restrictive filtering affects student learning. Background | Complimentary Webinar | Resources & Activities Logo Use | Promotional PartnersBarbara BraxtonThe Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a seer as one who “predicts events or developments” and while I can’t lay claim to having that extraordinary insight that sets such visionaries above the rest of us, in the past few weeks I have had the opportunity and privilege to see what might be in the world of libraries. While no one can accurately predict the future, nevertheless there are those who examine what has been, what is and can make a very good forecast of what will be. They undertake the research, read the reports, study the trends and draw conclusions that the astute amongst us will consider and act on so that what we are offering remains relevant and required. In a keynote address at the recent SLANZA conference in Christchurch, Mark Osborne identified three distinct phases in the evolution of education. Skills required in the 21st century How to teach all the skills

There Was A Whole Lot Of "Making" Going On At The #TIES14 Conference In Minneapolis This Week!From the minute we walked into to see Make It Happen....Transforming Pedagogy with Technology we knew this was going to be an amazing experience with so many wonderful educators from Minnesota and other parts of the world. It was a lot of fun speaking with these school district leaders and helping them understand the importance of and impact that Makerspaces can have within our schools and communities. When I went back in the afternoon I was excited to see what they had been creating and tinkering with throughout the day.

Wolfram Mathematica: Graphing Calculators: Comparative AnalysesAlthough now rare in college and professional settings, graphing calculators are still common in high-school math education. But as full-scale computers become cheaper, smaller and ever more ubiquitous, the future of standalone calculators is increasingly unclear. As the world's broadest and deepest mathematical system, Mathematica's computational capabilities vastly exceed anything that can be achieved with a calculator—and provide a completely different level of educational possibilities. While calculators are easy to use for simple operations, they rapidly become unwieldy when many steps are required. Mathematica, on the other hand, is immediately able to offer a fully scalable interface with dramatically more compelling graphics and interactivity, as well as greater systematic learnability.

Going Retro: Reading Apps for Real BooksReading Rainbow app YouTube clips. Texting.AboutBanned Books Week is the national book community's annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2015 celebration will be held September 27-October 3. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association.

BlogDon’t Just Displ... Donna Miller Fry in a post Where is the Beef? speaks directly to my own thinking when she asks: When... A Learning Visit to Ec... I was thrilled to have been invited to visit and work with teachers, administrators and parents at A...